Time is catching up with me. I’ve always said that age is nothing but a number, you’re only as old as you feel, blah blah blah. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had to accept that my body does not agree with my head and it’s showing its real age. I hurt my right knee just before Easter, I ignored the pain because it wasn’t hurting too much so I did a lot of skiing, and then after Easter the knee had swollen to football size (well it felt like it anyway). Not good. I waited for a week for the size to return to normal but when I didn’t, I finally had to go to the doctor. I got anti-inflammatory painkillers and advice to see a physiotherapist.

The physiotherapist had a different opinion about the source of problem than the doctor. And it’s entirely possible that they are both wrong. To be honest, the source of the problem is actually not so crucial at this moment, because whatever it is, the consequence is the same – I cannot put any load on the knee until it’s normal size again. I can walk, but I can’t even do a small promenade without limping. And that sure limits my activity options. And after two weeks of being stuck inside four walls, I’m going a little bit crazy. So today I did something I haven’t done in about 30 years – I went swimming. To my great surprise, I was still able to swim. It was not pretty, but I didn’t sink. So I spluttered around the pool (which I had all to myself) for almost an hour, and then enjoyed the sauna, and it did a world of good for my weary soul!

This evening I tried to shoot the roe deer in the last rays of the sun. While I was crouching with the camera, I felt a twinge in my left knee – what’s supposed to be the good knee. I can almost hear the arthritis growing. I think I’m starting to have an idea of what it’s like to be old.